Tales of Discordia

The adventurers Fodell, Kerkash, and Ventari ventured further into the old city. within, they learned of the origins of the mindflayers, and became aware of whom they served; Something called “The Great Old One”, a being of supreme dark power from an alternate dimension far away that had been summoned within the depths of the world to devour it from within. As the adventurers delved deeper into the old city, their minds and thoughts seemed to be invaded by a powerful evil. It wore on their sanity and drove them to near madness the closer they got to the old one’s chamber. It was there that they found it; a gargantuan nightmarish mass of flesh and teeth and tentacles whose form was unfathomable and incomprehensible to their mortal eyes. Their resolve and tenacity against the rage of madness ensured their victory, if only temporarily. King Rendogar re-sealed the Old One within his prison beneath Hammerkeep, and the party returned to be greeted with a heroes welcome.

During a congratulatory ceremony for the heroes on the slopes of Mount Hammerkeep, an ancient black dragon attacked. In the wake of the dragon’s destruction, King Rendogar was slaughtered, leaving his brother, Regent Lord Ranovin the single heir to the throne. The black dragon passed over the mountains to the east. The heroes followed, and Kastel Fenrin joined them. Fenrin thought it would be a good idea to check in with the silver lance enclave in Thunder peak along the way, since it was their charge to keep the ancient dragons in containment. The silver lances here were reluctant to share details at first, but kastel and Kerkash managed to get the elves talking. This particular dragon was not native to Thranargos, and was a harbinger of darker days to come. For this particular dragon, the elder and leader of the evil black dragons, was to symbolize the coming of the apocolypse. The Lances offered no further explanation and turned the party away, stating that the Order of the Silver Lance would see to it themselves. The party continued in the direction the dragon was last sighted, hoping to gain more clues of it’s whereabouts along the way. They found nothing, but happened upon Storm Coast Harbor, a small coastal town that served as a seaport. Here the party rented a room at the local inn, and Kerkash decided to have some fun at Kastel’s expense. He visited a nearby brothel and rented the homeliest of prostitutes, and sent her in Kastel’s direction. Kastel politely turned her down and visited the docks where a friendly sailor treated him and Kerkash with Devilweed, a psychotropic drug akin to marijuana. They exchanged stories of their personal lives and returned to the inn, taking up lodgings for the night.

The raid of Old Hammerkeep: Part One

The Adventurers Kastel, Kerkash, and Ventari returned to hammerkeep to claim their prize for their victory over Dagantha. King rendogar was pleased, and bestowed a handsome sum of wealth to each of them. He then apologized for not lending more aid against the dragon, and stated that, until now, he couldn’t be sure that the party could be trusted. He explained that recently tall, humanoid figures had been spotted in Hammerkeep and scores of Hammerkeep’s citizens had gone missing. These troublesome developments had rendered the city on high-alert and most of the guardsmen occupied. Rendogar had hired Floyd Jones, a prodigious human private investigator, to solve the case of the missing citizens. Weeks had gone by without results, so Rendogar sent the party after Floyd to gain his intel and report back. The city guard convinced the party that Floyd could be found drinking at the Guzzling Grimlock; Hammerkeep’s oldest bar and a cultural hotspot for local nightlife.

So Kastel and company made their way to the Guzzling Grimlock. Inside its hewn-stone walls were typical scenes of bar patronage. A drow bard, Anuven Do’urden, was having a tough time maintaining the crowd’s attention, due to being a drow in a dwarven pub. One particular drunkard, however; a Dwarf Barbarian named Thorn, was roused by the music, dancing and reveling at the bard’s musical and comedic talent. The two of them had drinks after Anuven’s act. Meanwhile, the party met up with Floyd Jones, and discussed the case with him there. Jones was experiencing something he had never before in his career as an investigator; Failure. This case was a trifling one indeed, he had explained that whoever the culprits are, they leave no trace of evidence whatsoever, and the only thing the victims had in common was that they were all nobodies – Drunkards, Homeless, Prostitues and the like. These were dwarves that likely no one in particular would miss. Which meant that either the culprits are snobs and purists, or they were trying to keep a low profile.

Just then, Kerkash and Ventari took note of a hooded figure who had just entered the pub, and sat himself at one of the corner tables. Kerkash used his Heart of Stone to gaze into the figure’s mind, But instead of reading the figure’s thoughts, Kerkash was able to hear the thoughts of everyone in the room, as if the figure acted as a sort of psychic prism. The thoughts became too multiple and loud to understand. But when he concentrated hard enough, a low whisper could be heard, in a language too bizarre and alien for his understanding. Kerkash casted a Comprehend Languages spell in an attempt to understand these whispers. The only information he was able to gather was that about something called “The Great Old One” and gathering slaves to build a city of darkness. Ventari, against Kerkash’s protests, approached the figure and greeted him, but for reasons beyond his comprehension, he was turned away and lost all memory of the hooded figure. This too, did happen to Kerkash. A new act was on the stage at the bar during this time; A dwarf bard, who sung a song he had written about Fodell The Redeemed’s deeds in Bladecrest. The crowed cheered, and the bard bowed and introduced himself as “Brad the Bard”. Floyd Jones was immediately concerned upon hearing the name, for “Brad the Bard” was the most recent kidnap victim. He alerted kerkash to this fact, at which point, the hooded figure rose from his seat and every bar patron reared it’s head toward the party. It was clear they were the victims of some sort of mind control. The patrons turned against Kerkash, Anuven, and Thorn, who were able to flee the enthralled dwarves with barely a scrape.

Meanwhile, Ventari engaged in a chase with the hooded figure, who led him through alleyways and slums in increasingly older districts of the city. The figure seemed to blink and psionically teleport short distances, leaving Ventari at a disadvantage. The hooded figure eventually led ventari to a Giant stone door and phased through it.

Ventari decided that at this time it would be best to report his findings to the king, and so he and Kerkash went to the king’s throne, and told Rendogar everything they knew. Rendogar became concerned, for the giant stone door they mentioned led into Old Hammerkeep; which haden’t been opened since the 3rd age. Rendogar was convinced some kind of evil had taken root in the old city, and he couldn’t stand idle any longer while his subjects suffered an unkown fate. So, he decided to take matters into his own hands and venture into the ruins of Old Hammerkeep himself. He, Kerkash, and ventari set off, and along the way they met Anuven and Thorn, who they recognized from the Guzzling Grimlock, along with a human mage, Saffronia Hendrickson. Kerkash and co. enlisted their help, seeing how they handled themselves well in the pub. And so, the party ventured to the ancient stone door. Rendogar insterted a stone he had been carrying into the wall and and the door gave way.

In old Hammerkeep, the party encountered many emaciated dwarves; some of the kidnap victims no doubt, enthralled by the same mind-control that the hooded figure had wielded at the pub. The dwarves took no notice of the party; they all seemed to be chiseling stone away, defacing the craftsmanship of the city and twisting them into haunting visages of nightmarish, otherworldly beasts. It was at this point that the hooded figure appeared again, doffed its hood to reveal its true appearance. It was a mindflayer; a psionic abberation from another dimension. The mindflayer hissed through it’s gibbering tentacles and blinked deeper into the dungeon, sending the enthralled dwarves after Rendogar and the Party. Ventari chased the mindflayer while the party dealt with the thralls.They were forced to kill scores of enthralled dwarves, until finally the battle came to an end. When they found ventari, he was locked in a gladiator-style battle against an orc chieftan with a sickle-and-chain in lieu of a right hand. The two clashed until Ventari seized the victory. The other orcs cowered at ventari’s might and scurried away, leaving him to reconvene with the party.

Together they ventured through the dungeon until they found a lost shrine to Vionna, the Goddess of Earth and creator of the dwarf race. The shrine had been untouched by the evils that had surrounded it and the hallowed ground was sealed from all evil. The party bathed in the fountain’s holy waters and Ventari reforged his weapon in the hearth of vionna, imbuing it with the fury of earth. The party then hunted down the mindflayer and engaged in battle with it. The mindflayer almost claimed Anuven’s life (And Brains) but a final blow concussed the mindflayer and released Anuven from the head-crushing grasp of it’s tentacly maw.

After the Druegar massacre at the Bronzebottom Brewery, Fodell, Ventari, and Kerkash made their way through the forlorn tunnels – an old road which was the only means of getting to Hammerkeep after the avalanche. Here they met Eubor, the undead mechant. Fodell, mistaking Eubor as hostile, removed Eubor's head with a well-placed javelin throw. After Eubor explained he meant no harm, introduced himself to the heroes and sold them some of his inventory of occult items, Fodell decided it would be best to take Eubor along for the journey. He tied Eubor's head to his waist and continued on his merry way. Deeper into the Forlorn Tunnels, Kerkash the warlock came across 6 long-dead adventurers, each with a ring on their hand. Cautiously, Kerkash removed the rings and inspected them. Each ring, while beautiful and ornately crafted, had an empty socket. They were missing their gemstones! Thus the group went on a scavenger hunt in the forlorn caverns. They found the six gemstones that belonged to the rings, and combined them with their respective bands to create the Rings of Cooperation. These lost relics would grant the heroes access to a shared pool of healing radiance while they were within range of each other. A battle then ensued between the heroes and the few remaining druegar of the forlorn tunnels. They cut down these enemies with relative ease.

The group eventually came to the town of Stonehearth. In search of information, Fodell the Oathbreaker went to the town hall and requested a meeting with the mayor, Gidwin Goldbraids. Gidwin was an odd dwarf. He had no beard to speak of, however, he had long, flowing, beautiful golden hair, which he flaunted proudly. Fodell became bored with the mayors ramblings and began to destroy the town's records, along with the mayor's office. This intimidated the mayor, and Gidwin, stammering, said "Just take wat ye fookin' w-want an' go ya bloody p-prick!" Fodell then staired intently at the mayor's golden hair. Gidwin pleaded, "N-no. P-please mister, not me golden braids!" "Yes." said the oathbreaker, And he hacked away at the mayor's hair, leaving nothing to be heard but girlish screams and the sound of locks of hair being lopped away. Fodell collected gidwins hair and had a haberdasher fashion it into a wig, which he placed on Eubor's Head. Eubor was delighted with the development! For now not only was he the handsomest undead who ever un-lived, he also had a sick flow as well. The party rested and took up lodgings in stonehearth, and decided to explore the region across the eastern bridge.

There, they found an engineer's workshop, owned and operated by a meticulous gnome woman named Ginny Spannersprocket. Ginny sold many of her wares to the wealthy adventurers, including a pair of rocketboots, a wormhole generator, and a seldom-useful robot named M.I.M.I.C. Kerkash was itching to try his new wormhole generator, so he tried his best to calibrate the machine to open a wormhole directly to hammerkeep. He was unsuccessful, creating a wormhole alongside the bride to hammerkeep instead. Ventari unwittingly jumped through the wormhole, and fell 100 feet into ice-cold water. Using his rocketboots, he was able to run accross the water onto shore, and climb the cliffside back up to the bridge. Here he suffered severe hypothermia, which was eventually cured when he struck a fire and rested. At this time, Fodell was able to meet Ventari at the bridge – The distance between the engineer's shop and the bridge was only four hour's walk or so. The two decided to cross the bridge to hammerkeep, taking note of the wormhole that was still open over the chasm beside the bridge. Kerkash waved them a hearty hello. It was at this point that the party was attacked by a large white dragon. The dragon managed claim Fodell's life a total of 3 times in the span of an hour, while Kerkash shot firebolts through the wormhole at the dragon and Ventari protected Fodell.Ventari used ressurection scrolls two times to ressurect fodell, But on his third death, Fodell had run out of Scrolls. In one final attempt to bring Fodell back to the world of the living, Ventari Prayed to the goddess of life, Ygdea, to give fodell one more chance. Ygdea then lifted Fodell's spirit from the infernal plane and returned him to his body. But in doing so, something had changed inside Fodell. The light that was lost in his soul had been rekindled, and he was a Paladin once more. WIth newfound strength, the party managed to fell the mighty dragon, collapsing the bridge. With only one direction to go, the party arrived at long last to Hammerkeep.

At the gates of hammerkeep, they encountered the city guard, who escorted them to King Rendogar Ironhelm's chamber. Rendogar was impressed at the parties merit and skill in dealing with the dragon, so he agreed to pay them handsomely if they could end the scourge of the frost dragons from thranargos for good. It was at this point that Fodell needed to rest and reflect on the virtues of faith, So he called upon Kastel Fenrin to take his place on this quest to kill the Frost dragon Broodmother, Dagantha. Together with Kastel, the party ventured to the top of Thunder Peak, where the broodmother was meant to dwell. Here they got the assistance of two members of the Order of the Silver Lance; an ancient elven order whose duty it was to keep the evil dragons in containment. an epic battle ensued between the party and Dagantha and her dragons, and ultimately the dragons fell to the combined might of the silver lances and the party.